Senior Legal Project Manager

Dentons; Greater London; Remote; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Dentons is seeking a Senior Legal Project Manager to join our UK-wide LPM team in London, or based anywhere in the UK. You will lead, oversee and coordinate the delivery of complex legal work for clients, Partners, and matter teams, driving governance, budgets, and risk management.

The role emphasizes process improvement, technology-enabled delivery, and close collaboration with the Innovation and AI teams to enhance client service and profitability across the firm.

Qualifications

• A good academic record, preferably graduate level.
• At least 6 years experience in a global law firm; or equivalent in financial/professional services environments.
• Highly organised and proactive with the ability to prioritise and collaborate.
• Experience leading a team with budgeting and numeracy skills.
• Effective communication, presentation and stakeholder management abilities.
• Strategic and pragmatic thinker; able to challenge assumptions and propose solutions.
• Proficiency with MS Office tools and legal tech knowledge.

Responsibilities

• Define scope and governance structures across matters; build budgets and monitor progress.
• Lead and mentor juniors, with training and quality control responsibilities.
• Set LPM standards; engage with Partners and clients on strategic initiatives.
• Identify opportunities to win work and expand LPM within the firm.
• Build relationships to drive adoption of Solutions across divisions.
• Collaborate with Business Development, Innovation, IT and Practice Development.
• Provide matter teams with LPM knowledge and templates.

Skills

Organisational skills

Communication

Stakeholder management

Presentation

Education

Graduate degree

Tools

MS Office

Visio

Job description

Department: Senior Legal Project Management

Duration: Permanent

Location: London

Reports to: Head of Legal Project Management

This role can be based anywhere in the UK

Role Purpose

The legal services market is experiencing a period of notable change, determined by growing expectations, technological development, and an evolving competitor marketplace. Increasingly our clients are approaching us to provide innovative solutions to enable them improve efficiency, reduce risk, and gain strategic advantages. Accordingly, we have an opportunity for a Senior Legal Project Manager to join our Legal Project Management (LPM) team, reporting to the Head of LPM. This role will support our offices across the UK, Ireland and Middle East.

Our LPM Team sits with the newly created Solutions function alongside our Innovation and AI team, the Legal Delivery Centre and the eDisclosure team. Solutions supports initiatives designed to improve Practice Group productivity and profitability, and alongside our Practice Groups and Helix, support the development of client facing products or services, particularly AI enabled, enhancing the overall client experience.

The LPMs work alongside our legal delivery teams in a client facing role. You will work closely with Partners, matter teams and clients to lead, oversee and co-ordinate the delivery of legal work to solve client's complex legal challenges. Our goal is to focus on all aspects of delivery, process improvement and innovation, providing clients with an exemplary level of service throughout the full matter lifecycle.

We are looking for a motivated candidate with a legal project management background who has experience in delivering complex projects and implementing change.

Duties & Responsibilities

You will provide high quality project management and consulting support and will work closely with Partners and Associates across the various practice groups within Dentons. You will provide our legal teams and clients with expert knowledge on the use of LPM tools and techniques. Specifically, you will:

• Work closely with senior stakeholders across the full lifecycle of matters to define scope, design governance structures, build and set up budgets, conduct planning, monitor progress and financials, conduct risk management, manage resources, and work allocation, control scope change and complete reporting;
• Be expected to manage juniors on the team and will be responsible for their development and output. This will include providing training and quality control;
• Setting the standards of LPM, our Senior LPMs are expected to lead engagement with Partners and clients alike. This includes being responsible for strategic initiatives and complex, high-profile projects and matters;
• Be expected to 'win work' for the LPM team, proactively working across the firm to identify opportunities where the team can be brought to bear to support our clients and legal teams;
• Act as a Divisional Solutions representative where you will be expected to build relationships across a Division or Practice Group to identify opportunities and drive adoption of Solutions across the firm;
• Understand process, technology, people, and data trends and identify and implement improvements into working practices;
• Collaborate with other departments involved in the delivery process; notably Business Development, Innovation, Accounts, IT (Information Technology) & Practice Development;
• Provide matter teams with LPM knowledge and support with tools, templates, and legal tech systems;
• Lead initiatives to drive continuous development and improvement of LPM methodologies and processes; Build significant working relationships with stakeholders and identify opportunities to grow LPM within the Firm;
• Work very closely with the Innovation and AI team to identify opportunities to implement technology solutions to solve real problems for our lawyers and clients.

Role Requirements

• A good academic record, preferably of graduate level;
• At least 6 years experience gained within a global law firm. Exceptional candidates will be considered who have gained their experience within a financial or professional services environment but strong preference is for candidates with prior experience within a Legal Project Management team.
• Highly organised and proactive with the ability to prioritise and evaluate tasks in a progressive and collaborative environment;
• Experience leading a team, excellent attention to detail, strong budgeting and numeracy skills;
• Effective communication, presentation, and stakeholder management skills with the ability to confidently interact at all levels;
• Ability to think strategically and pragmatically whilst being willing to challenge and question assumptions and propose alternative solutions to problems;
• Competent with MS Office tools (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio) with an excellent understanding of technology, preferably Legal Technology.